James Jean, an artist of Taiwanese heritage, is one of my favorite artists working today. His skills with brush, pen and pencil are unequaled, as is his fantastic and energetic imagination. He’s done everything from album art to advertisements for chain stores to numerous comic book covers, on top of the work he does for himself. One of Jean’s most compelling projects is his ‘Recess’ series, some of which I’ll be featuring in this installment, although I’m not limiting myself to that series because there are simply too many great pieces that fit the theme of this blog and which need to be seen. But if you like Jean’s dazzling layouts and surrealistic style don’t limit your exposure to him to what I show here; go to his website and look at everything. It will be well worth your time, I assure you.
James Jean – Recess: Flip
James Jean – Recess: Horse
James Jean – Recess: Jump
James Jean – Recess: Supertron
The above image was also used as the cover for an album by The Fading Collection, also called ‘Supertron’:
James Jean – The Fading Collection – Supertron
James Jean – Recess: Wave
James Jean – Recess: Weep
James Jean – Among the Dolls
James Jean – Fountain 1
James Jean – Giro (Youth)
James Jean – Sink
James Jean – Target
And once again, here is his website: James Jean Official Site
Comments:
From X on April 16, 2011
This is awesome. Everything looks almost like a comic book, but the more you look at it the more it seems to get weirder and weirder. The girl beating the skeleton is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. -X
From pipstarr72 on April 16, 2011
In fact, James Jean has worked on comics, most notably designing covers for the series Fables. He’s all over the place—I think a lot of people have seen his work but wouldn’t recognize the artist. He is truly an amazing illustrator. I first learned about him from the magazine Juxtapoz, which has provided me with pointers to several artists that will eventually show up on this blog.